


Pumpkin // Skeleton

by mythicalamity



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Broken Bones, Developing Relationship, Fainting, Hand Jobs, Hauntober prompt, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pining Link, Prompt Fic, Pumpkin carving, Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:13:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26748604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mythicalamity/pseuds/mythicalamity
Summary: (I was tempted to include some innuendo about roasted pumpkin seeds and tasting salty ‘seed’, but y’know.. these two just aren’t quite on that level in this one 🤣🤣)
Relationships: Rhett McLaughlin/Link Neal
Comments: 18
Kudos: 51
Collections: Hauntober 2020





	1. Pumpkin

Link dropped a couple of solid, round and festively, undeniably orange pumpkins on Rhett’s doorstep before walking back to his car to get the rest of them.

Halloween had never been Link’s favorite holiday. Yet he had somehow found his wagon hopelessly hitched to a best friend that made it an entire holiday season. Maybe it was because Rhett’s birthday was in the same month that he had such an affinity for it. Were Christmas babies more jolly? Did St Patty’s day babies drink more green beer as adults? 

At any rate, Link had agreed to go over to Rhett’s house to carve pumpkins that would serve as decorations when Rhett invited friends over for his traditional birthday gathering, and scary movie watch party. Another event that Link was reluctant to have on his calendar. Though, barring some kind of human or non-human animal ritualistic sacrifice, Link really couldn’t imagine how bad the itinerary would have to be for Link to not look forward to celebrating Rhett’s birthday. It was a celebration of the most important event to shape Link’s life. And it had happened before Link had even been born. 

Link used his elbow to ring the doorbell as he cradled the remaining pumpkins in his arms. 

Rhett opened the door with enthusiasm, and Link lifted the plump gourds up to his chest and did a suggestive shimmy with his upper body. Rhett just snorted and rolled his eyes in response to Link’s rack-o-lanterns before leaning down to grab the other pumpkins. 

Rhett’s house smelled like autumn spices, and Link took a deep breath. “That some kinda spiced tea, or something weird you got brewin’?” he asked.

“It’s mulled cider. Made it with bourbon instead of dark rum, to appease your delicate palate.”

“I can tolerate rum,” Link insisted. “If that’s what it’s usually spiked with.”

“Yeah,” Rhett shook his head. “I aim for all my guests to _tolerate_ my hospitality.” 

Link began to anxiously nibble his lip.

“You got the wrong pumpkins, y’know?” Rhett smugly informed him, as he handed him a steamy mug of spiked cider. 

Link held the cup in his hands, loving the way it warmed his skin. He inhaled the spices deeply before lowering his lips to take a sip. The warmth of the drink made him feel relaxed and pliant. His voice came out more smooth and less sharp than it might have otherwise.

“How is there such a thing as a ‘wrong pumpkin’?” 

“Well, there’s pie pumpkins and there’s carving pumpkins. What you’ve got here, brother, are pie pumpkins. They’re smaller, sweeter, rounder, and most important for our purposes here tonight: thicker.”

Now it was Link’s turn to roll his eyes. “Why you gotta be a pumpkin know-it-all?”

“I’m not being that way for the sake of being that way,” Rhett assured him. “This is applicable information seeing as how you’re about to try to… penetrate these things with sharp utensils.”

“Maybe I like ‘em thick?” Link stopped breathing the moment he stopped speaking. Had that small sip really started to eat away at the edges of what little filter he possessed?

Rhett’s cheeks flushed an endearing shade of pink as they stared at each other for a moment. 

“Well,” Rhett continued, struggling to move the conversation forward. “Maybe we can just clean these ones out, and chop ‘em up for pies. Appropriate substitution for birthday cake for the party. And we still have time to maybe… get together again before the party if we wanna carve some actual carving pumpkins.”

Link was eager to snatch up any excuse to get together. Though after his ‘like them thick’ comment, he was also trying not to sound quite as eager as he was.

“You do like pumpkin pie, don’t you?” Rhett teased. “It’s not on the neverending list of foods that you ‘don’t love’?”

Link’s mood was shifting quickly from flirty to irritated. 

“I’m a pie man, man!”

“Well, don’t act like it’s ridiculous of me to think you might not like something!”

Link didn’t answer. He squared up to one of the pumpkins that sat on Rhett’s newspaper-covered dining room table, and picked up a hefty knife.

“Easy there!” Rhett said again, holding his hands up in a mock defensive gesture. “I know you’re not normally trusted with knives that big!” 

Link’s hands began to tremble with frustration. Why did everything need to be a bit? He had been looking forward to spending time with Rhett. But he didn’t wanna be the dummy getting the wrong pumpkins. Or the picky eater. The klutz that can’t handle sharp objects.

Link stabbed his knife into the pumpkin, and barely made a dent into it. 

“Wow,” Link said, distracted from his annoyance by the impressive toughness of his gourd. “That is a thicky…” 

To Rhett’s credit, he didn’t chime in with an ‘I told you so’. 

They fell into a comfortable rhythm as they eventually pried the tops from their pumpkins and began to gut them. Link found that he enjoyed watching Rhett’s big paws pulling handfuls of seeds and stringy pumpkin guts. It was about as gritty of manual labor as they got up to these days. Link couldn’t take his eyes off of Rhett’s arm as it moved and flexed, wielding the large spoon to scrape the insides smooth. Link also found it oddly satisfying to smooth out the walls of his pumpkin. The sound, and feel of it and the gratification that came from thinking about the finished product. 

“I think that’s good, bo,” Rhett gently suggested when he noticed Link lost in the motions. “There’s good meat in that pumpkin if you don’t scrape it all away.” 

Link smiled as he stepped back, wiping his hands and the outside of his pumpkin on a paper towel. 

No teasing comments were made as they picked their knives back up to cube their pumpkins. Rhett more or less eyeballed his chunks, while Link was more precise with the sizes of his pieces. 

Link could practically hear Rhett’s voice in his head, telling him that no one was going to know how perfect his cubes had been once they were puréed and packed into a pie. 

Link’s lips curled into a smile. Rhett had asked him once on Ear Biscuits what he ‘heard’ as the voice inside his head. Link had told him that it just sounded like himself, but he could see now that wasn’t always true. Often, it was Rhett’s voice that he heard… 

They had cleared the pumpkin from the table and Link serenely slid his fingers beneath the edges of the newspaper that had been taped down to protect Rhett’s tabletop, he moved them along the edges of the paper to pry up the scotch tape but shuddered and yanked his hands instinctively up to his chest as he felt a stinging bite along the side of one finger. 

“You okay?” Rhett turned abruptly upon hearing Link’s hiss. 

The adrenaline of the quick flash of pain of the papercut made him a little dizzy. Or maybe it was the bourbon. Or maybe… Link’s eyes drifted in and out of focus as a perfectly spherical crimson bead swelled on his fingertip. 

“Maybe you should sit down,” Rhett offered, sounding more like he was telling than asking. “You’re as white as a sheet.”

“‘m fine..” Link lied weakly, his stomach rising with nausea as the room began to take on a fuzzy black border that began to close in on his awareness. 

Link heard the sound of a metal spoon clattering to the floor, though it sounded like it was in an opposite wing of the house as opposed to the opposite side of the table. And Rhett was moving impossibly fast, which was unsettling because everything else felt like it was in slow motion. 

Darkness enclosed him, as did large and warm arms. The warmth of Rhett’s body was the last thing Link remembered as everything went black.

* * *

Link woke up on Rhett’s couch with a bed’s worth of pillows propping his legs up, and his pants and belt were undone. 

“Rhett?” 

“It’s not what it looks like.. I googled ‘what to do if someone faints’ and it mentioned loosening restrictive clothing and.. I mean, you wear some pretty tight jeans. I was just trying to avoid restricting blood flow.”

“Mmhmm…” Link muttered, devastated that he had missed the first time that Rhett had undid his belt, and unzipped his pants. He’d had numerous very specific fantasies about those moments. The soft pressure of Rhett’s large hand over his belt, the clinking sound it would make as Rhett unhooked it. How warm his hand would feel, even through the denim as Rhett’s hand traveled down his fly with intent. This…? Was definitively less sexy. 

“Do you feel okay?” Rhett asked, helping to prop him upright, moving the pillows from his feet to behind his back. Rhett gestured to a glass of water with Link’s reach. “Your color is coming back.”

“‘m fine..”

“That’s the last thing you said before you passed out,” Rhett told him. 

“I’m not gonna faint again anyway.”

“But you’re not fine?”

That was a bit more intuitive than Link would have generally given Rhett credit for. Rhett sat down, and lifted Link’s legs up to drape them over his lap. 

“I…” Link started off unsure. He couldn’t be in a more vulnerable position. But this was Rhett, he couldn’t hide from him. That made about as much sense as trying to lie to himself. It simply couldn’t work. “I just don’t wanna be… the way I am. Like. A caricature of myself.”

“What, like, on the show?”

“With you.”

Rhett’s eyebrows knit together with confusion. 

“I don’t wanna be the guy that predictably faints at the sight of his own blood, can’t have knives, doesn’t like any good food. Scares too easily, is too anxious to be any fun. Just...”

“The part about you not being fun is way off. I never have as much fun as I do with you, in any situation, and that’s been true for over 35 years.”

Link felt tears well up in his eyes. 

“And all that other stuff,” Rhett continued, his green eyes soft and alive. “They’re all exaggerations, but they’re part of who you are. All pieces of my favorite person. I don’t want you to change any of it. When I joke about it, I want you to feel seen, not criticized.”

The word ‘criticized’ made Link’s chest tighten. That was a hard word for him not to internalize. 

“Link, I don’t care if you’re klutzy, I just wanna be the one to hold the knife for you. And if you don’t wanna eat something, I wanna be there to happily take it off your plate. One of my favorite things about Halloween is how easily you scare, and you move a little closer to me for security. And it’s okay if you faint, as long as I get to be the one to take care of you.”

“And unbuckle my freakin pants?” Link joked, feeling compelled to defuse some of the heavy emotion from the situation. Rhett’s words sounded like vows in Link’s mind, and he thought it might be dangerous for him to lean too much into what he’d always wanted to hear. 

“Maybe.”

Link’s eyes went wide. 

“I mean, I never wanted to do that to ya while you were unconscious. But… I have thought about it before.”

Link couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Maybe he hadn’t woken up yet. 

“What if I said I was scared right now, Rhett? Would you hold my hand?”

Soft, warm skin instantly enveloped Link’s still clammy hand. 

“Better?”

“So much better.”

“Anything else you need?” Rhett asked. Link could feel the hope and potential crackling between them. 

Link licked his lips, and sat up straighter, and curled his legs back toward himself. 

Rhett took the hint and scooted closer to Link. 

“Are you gonna kiss me?” Link asked bluntly, afraid that the suspense might actually kill him.

“Is that something that you’d, uh… Be all right with?”

Link could not crawl into Rhett’s lap fast enough. He straddled Rhett’s broad thighs and placed a shaky hand on each of Rhett’s bearded cheeks. 

Rhett leaned forward to connect their lips, and that first touch warmed Link’s body more than any first sip of mulled cider could have ever hoped to do. A half-moan, half-sigh pushed its way from Link’s lips into Rhett’s, the humming tickling Rhett’s mouth as he expelled decades worth of yearning. 

Link felt Rhett’s tongue idling on the edge of his lip, like a thirsty vampire waiting for an invitation, which Link extended by devouring Rhett’s tongue whole. He slid his lips around the pointy muscle and sucked on Rhett’s tongue suggestively, feeling Rhett’s hips shifting and lifting him up. Link held on to the back of the couch for leverage as he ground down to meet Rhett’s movements. 

“Goodness, Rhett,” Link panted. “I think I might faint again.”

Rhett grinned devilishly. “Probably that restrictive clothing.” His eyes dipped down toward their hips. “Think you oughtta… maybe take those pants off?” 

Link stood up on shaky legs, and shimmied out of his skinny jeans. He’d purposely worn them, hoping Rhett might notice how nice he looked in them. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined Rhett might get to see how he looked out of them. Rhett peeled his pants off as well, and they both paused. 

“What’re we actually doin’ here?” Link asked. 

“I want you,” Rhett said, full of fire.

“I honestly don’t know how to go about that,” Link admitted. “This is… a lot.”

Rhett nodded and tried again. “I want you… to feel good.” 

Link nodded.

“Can we go back to kissin’?” Rhett asked, almost shyly. “We waited so long to do that. I don’t know how I’m ever gonna stop now.” 

Link couldn’t have suppressed his broad smile if he’d wanted to. “Was it comfortable? How I was before?” 

Rhett nodded, and gripped Link by his hips to drag him back into his lap. The heat where their bodies hinged together set Link’s mind aflame. 

Between nibbles of Rhett’s lips, Link asked, “Can I touch myself while I’m kissin’ you?” 

“Hell yes,” Rhett replied in a low, gravelly rasp that would pleasantly haunt Link’s dreams for the rest of his days. And he hoped a lot of his waking moments as well.

Link pulled his swollen cock from beneath his boxers and began to stroke himself between their bodies. The back of his fingers grazed Rhett’s dick, hard beneath the fabric of his own underwear - and a little dewy. Link could not resist. He tucked his hand behind the elastic of Rhett’s drawers and gently touched the hot velvety skin that he found underneath. 

“Is this okay?” Link asked. Feeling like he maybe shoulda asked before sticking his hands down Rhett’s pants. But he was doing his best under very overwhelming circumstances. 

“Yeah, baby,” Rhett breathed, his breath hitching with Link’s touches. 

Link liked the way that the pet name rolled off of Rhett’s lips, and he wondered what else he could get him to say. 

Link was quickly moving past his shyness, and pushed Rhett’s shorts down enough to take his dick completely out. He massaged the swollen, reddened tip in his palm and took a moment to really feel him as he wrapped his fist entirely around him. 

“You a pie pumpkin, Rhett?”

Rhett shook his head in dumb confusion?

“‘Cause you’re a thicky, too…”

Rhett’s eyes rolled back into his head as endorphins flooded his brain from the combination of the dumb joke and the clever touches. 

Their lips met again as Link tried to wrap his hand and around both their lengths and stroke them together. They pressed their bodies together, and slippery skin slid in and out of rhythm as they moaned into each other’s mouths. 

Rhett reached down to touch Link, and Link nearly blew his load the second he felt the touch. They took time to learn each other’s bodies in this new way of sharing themselves. Taking cues from sharp breaths and deep sighs. In the way their movements and breathing changed. In the small words of encouragement and praise that they traded. 

Their breaths became more staggered, and their movements rough and irregular. Rhett’s touches got firmer, and Link’s nibbles were turning into bites. They inched toward the edge of their mutual pleasure, falling over the edge within rapid succession of one another. Link left his head buried into Rhett’s shoulder, breathing him in, and focusing on the steady rhythm of the other man’s breathing. Trying to still his mind in the face of the thousand questions that had tried to come racing in to fill the post-orgasm void in his brain. 

“You all right?” Rhett asked.

“Well, I’m a lot better than fine,” Link chuckled before sitting up and finally looking Rhett in the eye. 

“You sure are,” Rhett told him. “Can I kiss you again?” 

Link nodded and they shared a soft, chaste kiss. Rhett moved to cup Link’s face with his hand before looking down and cringing at the sticky mess between them. 

“This is a little… intimate?” Rhett commented awkwardly.

“We just fully made out and jerked each other off! I’d say ‘a little intimate’ is an understatement at this point.” 

Rhett’s barked out a full body laugh that bounced Link in his lap. 

Link looked into Rhett’s eyes and found reflected there all the love and all the questions that they both shared. 

“Going forward… What do we….? Did we mess up, Rhett?”

“Well, we definitely made a mess…”

“You know that’s not what I-”

“No, Link. I don’t think we messed up. We’re still good.”

Link smiled, and exhaled a little bit of his tension.

“And,” Rhett assured him. “If you’re scared, going forward… I’ll hold your hand.”

Link smiled, again feeling a little misty eyed. “I’d love it if ya wash that hand first, but… Thank you, Rhett.” 

Link was beginning to think he’d found a new appreciation for the Halloween ‘season’. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I was tempted to include some innuendo about roasted pumpkin seeds and tasting salty ‘seed’, but y’know.. these two just aren’t quite on that level in this one 🤣🤣)


	2. Skeleton

A couple of days had passed, and the day of Rhett’s birthday party had arrived. Link had treated Rhett to a birthday brunch, just the two of them. It was the best excuse that Link could think of to see Rhett as early as possible, and spend as much of the day together before other guests arrived for the movie and festivities. 

The pretense was thinly veiled since they had exchanged words and touches of intimacy. But now there was a new and open element of their relationship that they were still getting used to navigating. It was relatively natural when it was just the two of them. But Link did wonder how Rhett would want to play things when their other friends were around. Link didn’t think that anyone that knew them could say that they’d be surprised if Rhett and Link had decided to explore this possibility in their relationship. But then again, you never really know what people will think until you make yourself vulnerable by sharing. 

There was a lot of casual footsie beneath the table at brunch. And fingers that would brush and touch and linger affectionately. They would make eye contact and practice not reflexively looking away, pretending that they’d never felt the need to protect one another by not staring. Pretending that they’d always known that the gazes were welcome and appreciated. Link found this new dance to be an absolute thrill. 

After brunch, they went back to Rhett’s house to put out some spooky decorations, and prepare snacks and drinks. Link was fully aware of the amount of time they’d have to pass between decorating and guests actually arriving in the evening, after dark. His stomach flip flopped with excitement as he imagined how they might fill the time. 

They passed the early hours after noon decorating the house, and baking the pies and sunflower seeds from their fortuitous pumpkin carving evening. Link had just finished cleaning the flour from the counters, and Rhett washed the dishes and wiped the knives dry to put them away immediately. 

“Should we take a break from hosting duties?” Rhett prompted. 

Link could feel himself light up from within. His stomach began to flutter with hope. He and Rhett had largely stepped back from physical intimacy since the pumpkin carving night, wanting to proceed in a clear headed and sustainable manner. But if he was honest, not a day had passed where Link hadn’t indulged in vivid fantasy of what it would be like to be close with Rhett like that again. To breathe him in. Feel his touch. The warmth and girth of him in his hand. To feel the size of Rhett’s body over him, around him, inside of him. It made Link’s head swim, and it made his cock swell. 

“Wanna shoot some hoops?” Rhett suggested, completely bursting Link’s bubble. Maybe he was serious about taking things slow. 

Link didn’t want Rhett to think that that was  _ all _ he wanted from him. That passing time recreationally somehow wasn’t good enough. It had always been good enough. So Link nodded, trying to inject his response with some kind of enthusiasm. “Yeah, all right. Sounds fun.”

Rhett rolled his eyes, not falling for Link’s false excitement. “We can… make it interesting ?” Rhett shot Link a wink.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, the winner gets… Well, whatever the loser is willing to give, I guess?”

Link had never been more eager to lose a game. He was ready and willing to give it all.

They settled on playing a loose game of H-O-R-S-E. Starting with simple free throws and layups, and evolving into more creative setups and shots. 

It was a thrill for Link to watch Rhett getting really into it, his competitive excitement animating him, sweat and pheromones in the air as long limbs passed in close proximity. 

Rhett’s feet left the ground as he stretched to put up another fancy shot, but all the fun was sucked out of their challenge as Rhett landed onto his feet accompanied by a sickening *pop*. 

Link’s stomach sank at the sound, and Rhett’s hyperextended left leg buckled beneath him and the big man crumpled into a heap on the driveway. 

“Rhett!” Link rushed to his side, despite his queasiness. 

Rhett didn’t really have to answer. There wasn’t much delay before the leg and knee began to swell. 

“I… I think I could have torn some tendons or something.”

“What should I do? Do you need ice? Is it broken? Do you have a brace or something.”

Link could see that Rhett was having to focus on each breath that he took. 

“I’m no doctor, but there's sharp pain. And no brace is gonna fit over this swelling. They’re gonna have to cut me out of my dang shorts. 

“Lemme get you into my car. I’ll take ya to the emergency room.”

There was a not insignificant wait at the ER. Link hardly knew what to do in this situation. His mama might’ve been a nurse, but Link was useless at stuff like this. He felt especially bad about that after Rhett had been so attentive when he’d passed out at the sight of his own blood. He could tell that Rhett was in pretty significant pain, and conversation didn’t feel like much of an option. Link offered his iPod and they shared the earbuds to listen to music together otherwise in silence. Rhett’s eyes slipped closed and a peaceful smile settled onto his lips. It seemed to have been a good choice. 

Link spent more time in the waiting room as Rhett was seen by the doctor, and taken for an x-ray. He used some of the time to communicate that Rhett’s party would have to be canceled. After the x-ray, Link was finally permitted to wait inside the doctor’s office with Rhett while they waited for her to return to explain the x-ray and what Rhett’s next steps would be. 

Link looked at the x-Ray of Rhett’s lower body, pelvis to toes. Link looking at Rhett’s scans, he felt the same way he did when he looked under the hood of a car. He had no idea what he was looking at.

“You know, I had been hoping to get a look at your lower half today,” Link joked.

Rhett laughed a little too easily. The doctor had given him some pain meds after her first exam. 

Link used a phony professor voice to point to Rhett’s skeletal knee on the lit up image. “Just as I suspected, Mr McLaughlin. Beautiful inside and out!”

Rhett was still giggling when the doctor returned.

“Feeling better?” She smiled. She went on to explain that the way Rhett had landed in a kind of twist and hyperextension of his leg had both torn his ACL and created a small fracture at the top of his shin. Now that it had been pointed out to him, Link could decipher the area at the top of Rhett’s tibia that looked like it had been chipped into. Bleeding into the knee was what had caused it to swell immediately. It would require surgery, but it wasn’t an emergency and could wait a couple of days for the swelling to go down. 

She turned to Link. “It’s not gonna be any picnic. He’s gonna be in a lot of pain, and he’ll need to be as immobile as possible until the surgery and some time after… I apologize for being presumptive. You  _ do _ live with Mr McLaughlin?”

“I, uh… Well, no. But… Rhett?”

“Oh, he can stay as long as he’d like to stay.”

“You will require a lot of assistance,” she reiterated. 

Link felt an unexpected swelling of his chest. A sort of premature pride at the opportunity to take care of the man that had protected Link since they were kids. He felt 100% up to the task. Plus, it would give them the perfect excuse to hole up together at Rhett’s house. Well, maybe not perfect. Pain and surgery weren’t ideal, but he knew they’d make the most of their silver lining. 

Rhett was sent home with a tibia brace and a bunch of pain meds. Rhett slept the entire time Link drove him home. Link couldn’t remember Rhett ever being at ease enough with Link’s driving to fall asleep! 

Link got Rhett settled into a reclining chair in the living room, and brought him a large bottle of water. He wanted to make sure that Rhett was comfortable before he briefly left him alone to go grab a bag of clothes and toiletries for the weekend. 

When Link got back to Rhett’s place, he found that Rhett had dozed off. Made sense to Link, Rhett had been through a lot, and he had a long road of healing ahead of him. 

Link quietly set his bag in Rhett’s guest room, not wanting to be presumptive. But he didn’t unpack, because he was still hopeful that Rhett would invite him into his bedroom. 

Link looked around Rhett’s house, feeling a little sad as his eyes swept the room and took in all their decorations that they’d put up for Rhett’s birthday party. Rhett loved hosting scary movie night for his birthday each year, always going all out for it. 

Link glanced over at Rhett and decided he might be out for a while. He took his phone out and quickly looked up some easy, no-bake Halloween treats. 

When Rhett woke up he found that the sun had set enough that the orange and purple fairy lights they’d hung were glowing bright, bathing his living room in delightfully eerie light. 

Link had lit fall candles like Whipped Pumpkin and Bonfire Nights to help create the perfect atmosphere. 

Link watched as awareness settled into Rhett’s dazed and groggy expression. Rhett smiled and his cheeks rose, flushed red like crisp fall apples. 

Link had set out the pumpkin seeds they’d roasted and some pumpkin spice seasoned popcorn. He had shaped a cream cheese based cheese ball into the shape of a ghost. Link even took one for the team by using sliced black olives to make the eyes and mouth of the ghost. (They’d be easy enough to eat around.) 

Link had cued up Shaun of the Dead. 

“I thought we’d start with a movie that’s half comedy, half horror. Kind of ease me into it?”

“We can go at whatever pace is comfortable for you, darlin.” Rhett lifted the blanket that Link had draped over him and beckoned Link to curl up next to him. 

“I don’t wanna hurt you,” Link told him as he carefully slid in next to Rhett. 

“Aches more not havin’ you near me.”

Link smiled and rested his head against Rhett’s broad chest. He sipped one of the way-too-many pumpkin beers they’d bought for what had ultimately become a party of two.

“I’m sorry you’re hurting, Rhett. And I’m sorry your party got ruint.”

Rhett took a deep breath and snuggled Link more closely. “A weekend alone, being pampered by my boyfriend? This might be my favorite birthday ever.”

“Boyfriend?” Link’s heart danced in his rib cage. 

“That work for you?”

“Hell yes,” Link beamed, making a mental note to move his bags into Rhett’s bedroom. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a bit of a naughty epilogue in mind 👀 👀


End file.
